Rokkaku Before Canon
by burnein
Summary: Bane & Davide centric. What happened before the events of the manga and anime as you know it. May contain puns unsuitable for general consumption.
1. Chapter 1

It was funny, how human relationships worked. Bane had never actually bothered to keep track of who was younger or older than him, not till he actually entered Rokkaku Junior High, then all of a sudden the line between younger and older seemed so much clearer. Like how the 'why' kid was his age, while that kid with the blond hair was a year younger.

The new captain was picked with much ceremony. In other words, the team went out to dig for clams, and Ojii chucked a handful at the team blindfolded, and the first guy it hit became the captain. And so they applauded, because it was polite, and ate the clams, because it was dinner, and pelted the empty shells at their new captain, because it was fun.

One day, while running around picking up balls, Bane noticed a new kid standing among the random other ones milling about outside the courts. He'd never seen this boy before, all short and skinny and serious-looking with a head of wavy red hair. "Hey!" Bane called out. "Are you new around here?"

The boy nodded. Bane blinked. This was the first time anyone had responded to him silently; the kids around here were too noisy for their own good, and would have volunteered not only the information Bane had asked for, but the date they arrived, the number of people in their family, and how old they were.

"Can you even talk?"

Another nod. The expression on the boy's face never changed, and Bane got slightly unnerved by that solemn green-eyed gaze. "You all right there?" he ventured.

"Not entirely," the boy responded. "Because if I was, then I wouldn't have a left." Then he grinned, and his front tooth was only half grown out.

Bane stared. "What the... what!"

The grin dropped off the boy's face as quickly as it had appeared. "Didn't you get that?"

The side of Bane's mouth twitched. "I got it. I got it all right." His eyebrow twitched, too. "What's your name?"

"Amane Hikaru."

Bane would remember the name, and the boy, and he would make sure Amane Hikaru joined the tennis team so that when the time came, Bane could use the kid's new Ojii-made racket to _beat the shit out of him_. "I'm Kurobane," he said instead, the easy smile on his face almost belying his murderous thoughts. Almost, because his eyebrow somehow wouldn't stop twitching.

The gap-toothed grin returned, albeit somewhat dimmer. "Hello, Kurobane-nii-chan," he chirped. "I think someone's looking for you."

As Bane turned to see just what the kid was looking at, a neon yellow ball whizzed into his face. "Stop fraternising with the chibis and come practice," Saeki called out from the next court, bouncing a second ball between the floor and his racket. Saeki was tall, taller than Bane, and had swarms of girls of all ages clustered around him whenever Bane saw him in school. Bane didn't care about the girls, but he wanted to be taller than Saeki someday.

As Bane walked over to play a few warm-up sets against Saeki, he cast a quick glance back at the kids running around outside the chain-link, but Amane was nowhere to be seen.


	2. Chapter 2

"Kurobane-nii-chan!"

Bane blinked. The voice was unfamiliar, but the suffix wasn't. Only one person had ever called him that. He turned around to see a boy striding through a gaggle of new first years towards him, one hand in the air in a wave.

"Amane!" Bane exclaimed after seven seconds of searching his memory. He hadn't seen the kid in three months, after all. "You got in?"

Amane adjusted the collar of his gakuran. "Yep. Am thinking of joining the tennis club." He looked down at Bane, who realised rather belatedly that the kid now stood half a head taller than him. How depressing.

"Good," he replied cheerfully instead. "The club could do with more people." It wasn't that there wasn't enough, but hey, having more members always meant more fun. "Have you ever played tennis before?"

Amane shrugged, a quick rise and fall of one shoulder. "I play a bit here and there," he said, then smiled slightly. "If I join, it means you'd be my senpai, right?"

Bane blinked again. "Uh, I'm already your senpai. Same school, remember?" It really wasn't right that this guy was a year younger and yet so much taller than him. "Anyway. We're having tryouts tomorrow afternoon, so come, ok?" He grinned up at the kid. "I'll play against you for a bit."

Amane's smile brightened a little before sliding away as the bell rang to end lunch period, and he nodded. "I'll see you there." Then, as suddenly as he had arrived, he left. Bane raised an eyebrow at Amane's departing silhouette, then finished his juice and went back to class.

The next day, as Bane and the twins were finishing a few warm-up laps of the grounds, they noticed a few tryout matches being played. Bane jogged to a stop to see if Amane's was one of them, but the distinct red hair was nowhere in sight.

"Looking for someone in particular?" Atsushi asked, hopping a little on the spot to cool down and readjusting his hair tie.

"Tall kid with red hair," Bane answered absently, scanning the entire area. Amane, a tennis bag slung across his shoulder, was just walking in through the gates to the courts, and Bane watched and sipped at his water as the kid wrote his name down on the clipboard provided, and went to change for the tryouts.

Ryou walked over. "Cute kid," he observed. "Could do with a good smile or two, but cute anyway. Weird hair, though."

"Certainly is original," Bane retorted, and Ryou touched his own hair, tied in the same style as Atsushi's, and blew Bane a raspberry. "Come on, I wanna get a few games in before sunset."

The three rotated a few games of two-on-one for a bit, but stopped when the audience in the surrounding courts fell silent. Bane looked up from his loose shoelace to see Amane smash a ball so hard past Saeki that it was barely a blur of neon yellow.

Saeki, who hadn't even had a chance to move, straightened and nodded. "You're definitely in," he told the redhead, and walked forward to stick his hand out across the net with a smile. "Welcome to the team! I'll take your particulars down later." He turned to the shocked, whispering crowd of first years waiting by the club room. "Next?"

Bane jogged over to Amane. "A bit here and there?" he asked incredulously. "That was amazing!" He jerked his thumb back across his shoulder. "Come on, play one against me."

The twins were wearing identical grins as he headed back to the court, but Bane ignored them and gestured to the umpire chair. "Make your smarmy selves useful," he told them. "One set match?" he asked Amane, who did that slight shrug again and nodded.

The match was close, and when it ended, Bane heard a slow 'hmm' and turned to see Ojii perched on the bench. "Ahh! Ojii!" he exclaimed. "When did you get here?"

"A while ago," Ojii replied, and turned to look at Amane. "Hmm," he repeated, and then told the first year, "You need a new racket. I think I know what to give you."

Bane's jaw dropped, and he heard Atsushi make an incredulous sound from the umpire's seat. Only chosen regulars got Ojii-made rackets, and usually people who dropped out of the regulars or the team would stop using their wooden racket out of respect. To hear Ojii say something like that...

"There's no need to make such a racket," Amane calmly said to the other first years, who were beyond the whispering stage and now openly exclaiming - they knew how important an Ojii-racket was, from spending months as elementary school kids observing the junior high team. Then, to everyone's surprise, Amane turned his head to the side and made a weird 'pfft' noise.

Bane twitched.

Amane waited for a second, then frowned. "Didn't anyone get that? Ojii offered to make me a racket, and I sa--"

Bane threw a ball at his head.

And was startled when Amane turned to him and grinned, wider than he'd seen thus far. Ryou was right - it made him look rather... well, cute. "I knew you'd get it, Kurobane-nii-chan!"

Bane glared at Atsushi, who just sniggered some more at him, then returned his attention to Amane, who was obviously waiting for some kind of response. "It wasn't funny, idiot," he said to the redhead, who just continued to grin at him. "Stop making those stupid puns."

"No," Amane assured him happily. "I like them." He then bowed to Ojii, who hummed cheerfully at him. "Pleased to meet you."

"So!" Ryou said, coming over to sling an arm over Bane's shoulders. "Kurobane-nii-chan, huh?"

"Very nice ring to it," Atsushi added, sliding down from the chair and trotting over to Bane's other side. "Makes you sound like a dirty old man, but cute anyway."

Bane hit them both.


	3. Chapter 3

School soon settled into a comfortable pattern, with lessons in the morning, naps during lunch, practice in the afternoon, and outings to the beach when the sun started setting. The regulars had been selected after a round of ranking matches, and Amane got his wooden racket. When he first emerged from Ojii's workshop with it, the team had stopped their games to stare.

"Why's it so long?" To nobody's surprise, Itsuki was the first to ask.

Amane's expression never changed. "It didn't take that long to make, did it, Ojii?" Then, "Pfft."

Bane smacked him. "That's not even funny, stupid!"

"I thought it was," Amane replied calmly. "But isn't it cool?" He hefted his racket in one hand and plucked at the strings a little. "Ojii said something about wanting to make full use of my arm power."

Their coach, who had tottered out of his workshop with huge goggles perched on his head and a bunched-up apron in his hands, nodded. "Go try it out," he instructed. "Kurobane, play doubles with him. Saeki, Itsuki, on the other side."

If the sudden arrangement startled anyone, they didn't let it show. Bane took his place at the baseline and got momentarily distracted by Amane stretching, all that sinewy muscle moving against the thin material of his jersey. "The hell, Bane," he muttered to himself, then prepared to serve.

After two games, it was pretty obvious that the Bane-Amane pair would never win. While each of them clearly had more power than Saeki and Itsuki combined, they had no experience as a doubles pair. Plus, Amane was still getting used to his new racket, and kept missing shots.

"Now you know what you have to work on," Ojii said sagely from his perch on his usual bench, and, to all appearances, fell asleep.

Bane looked at his junior. "Does this mean I'm going to have to partner him?" he grumbled to nobody in particular. "I'd kill him before we get used to each other."

Amane had walked over, and Bane realised that the redhead had shrunk. Or that Bane himself had grown taller at last – they were at each other's eye level now. "Are we doubles partners now, Kurobane-nii-chan?" he asked, so earnestly that Bane couldn't help but soften a little.

"Yeah, I suppose we are," he reached up and cuffed Amane on the head a little. "Come on, let's go get you used to this racket."

Working with Amane wasn't as bad as Bane thought it would be – as long as there was tennis to distract the kid, he didn't make any stupid puns. Also, in between the bad jokes, Amane was rather enjoyable to talk to.

One day over lunch, Itsuki decided that Amane needed a nickname. Everyone in the team had one, anyway. And so they all tried to think of one, but to no avail – there wasn't a way of shortening Amane's name without it becoming indecipherable, and Hikaru was just too common a name to play with. They all ignored Amane's own suggestions, because there was no way they were going to call him Mr Puntastic, no matter how true it was.

The answer came during class one day. Atsushi, from two rows back, flung a crushed ball of paper at Bane's head. "Don't you think that statue looks like your little puppy?" the note said. Bane turned to glare at Atsushi, who sparkled innocently at him, then considered the first part of the sentence. History class normally covered Japanese history, but they had a weird teacher with a fetish for European art, and thus they occasionally spent lessons listening to her deviate off topic and enthuse about Leonardo da Vinci's paintings and Michelangelo's sculptures.

Today, she was talking about a statue called David, who was apparently a character in the Christian bible. Or so Bane thought; he hadn't exactly been listening. He did pay a bit of attention to the slides that she was flashing on the screen, though – and realised that Atsushi was right, in a rather… general… sort of way. After all, Amane wasn't exactly unclothed and posing in a way that basically showed off his body to everyone, and Bane really wasn't thinking of Amane naked. At all. Really.

"You might have something," Bane grudgingly wrote on the abused piece of paper, and tossed it back over his shoulder, not really caring where it landed – it would find its way back to Atsushi.

That evening after practice, as the team trooped to shower and change, Atsushi grabbed Amane by the elbow and told him to take off his shirt and pose.

"Pose?" Amane repeated in confusion. "How?"

"Er, kind of like… strike a powerful yet not too overbearing pose." Atsushi scratched his head as he tried to remember what was said in class. Bane kept silent – he had a horrible feeling that if he spoke, he'd ask Amane to take off all his clothes to make things accurate. Atsushi, in the meantime, was busy attempting to recreate the statue's pose in an extremely comical way.

Amane blinked. "Do you have a reference, uh, besides yourself?"

"That statue by Michael something," Atsushi said absently, arms akimbo, still trying to get the pose right. Saeki, Ryou and Itsuki were doubled up with laughter at him. "It looks like you."

"The statue of David?" Amane tugged his shirt over his head and slung it over his shoulder in a perfect imitation of the statue. "Does it look like me?" He lowered his head and looked intense for a bit, then snorted and ruined the effect. "I guess you have your nickname, then."

"Davide," Saeki tried. "Yeah, it works. Welcome to the club of uselessly suitable nicknames!"

"I happen to like mine," Ryou argued. "Right, B2?"

"Right, B1," Atsushi said automatically.

Amane laughed. "Are those your nicknames?"

The twins grinned at him. "Yep," they chorused, and Ryou added, "American TV is strange."

"Well, now that we've decided on a name for him, can we go shower?" Bane bounced his racket on his shoulder and looked at everyone but Amane, who had tied his jersey around his neck and was currently amusing Saeki with Superman imitations. "I have to get home early today."

"Oh," Amane said, untying his 'cape' and looking at Bane with those clear green eyes. "I was going to ask you if you wanted to try that ice cream place down by the beach, actually."

Now Bane felt like an idiot. "Uh, tomorrow?" he suggested lamely. "I'll treat."

"Ok!" Amane flashed him a quick grin, and walked off into the clubroom.

Saeki sidled up to Bane. "Kurobane-nii-chan… do I get a treat too?" He twined his arm around Bane's. "I'll be good, really."

"Die," Bane told him, laughing. "And why are only calling me that now, huh? You're two days younger than me. Start acknowledging my seniority."

"Ok, Kurobane-nii-chan. But I get ice cream out of it." Laughing and arms still linked, they headed into the clubroom.


	4. Chapter 4

Running on the beach was fun, but extremely tiring. Bane didn't much like it; preferred running around the neighbourhood because the roads were flat and there were people to wave to as he jogged by. But Atsushi had dragged him and Itsuki for a run along the beach, so here he was, getting sand in his shoes and more out of breath than he'd been for a while.

What they didn't expect to find along the way, though, was the strange boy standing by the waves, one hand propped by the other under his chin. "Nfu," he said to them. "You there, in the hat."

Atsushi, panting and confused, pointed to himself with a quizzical noise. The stranger nodded and made that weird 'nfu' sound again, then said, "I was watching you play earlier. Would you like to join us in St Rudolph?"

"Huh?" was Atsushi's incredibly intelligent reply.

The boy's eyes narrowed slightly, then widened as he realised something. "Oh, how terribly rude of me! My name is Mizuki Hajime, and I'm the manager of St Rudolph Junior High's tennis club… I'm on the lookout for talented players like yourself." He smiled, and Bane thought it made him look even creepier. "Walk with me," he said to Atsushi, who complied, leaving Bane and Itsuki to stare at each other in complete confusion.

They never did find out what Mizuki said to Atsushi, but two weeks later, Atsushi had transferred to St Rudolph and Ryou was coping rather badly.

"Where the hell am I supposed to find a doubles partner who can work as well with me?" he ranted to Davide, who just sat there and listened and nearly strained something trying not to make puns because Ryou-senpai would kill him if he did. "Stupid Atsushi. Stupid Mizuki. Stupid Catholic boarding school."

In the end, Ryou started playing singles. A second year named Shudou took Atsushi's place in the regulars, and Saeki and Itsuki started to train as a doubles pair. About a month after Atsushi's transfer, they got a long letter from him that started off with the words "He thought I was RYOU!", which made Ryou fall over in hysterical laughter and the rest of the team fall over from the sheer irony of the situation.

Life, school, practice, seafood and Saeki's teasing of Kurobane-nii-chan continued. Bane and Davide soon developed a strong chemistry, both on the courts and off, and Bane didn't spend half his time at the baseline trying very hard not to stare at his kouhai's ass. Really, he didn't. He wasn't staring. Maybe just glancing. But definitely not staring.

When a shiny printed invitation for practice matches arrived in Ojii's mailbox from Hyotei, the team crowded around to poke at the glossy paper. "I wonder how much the paper cost," Saeki said, flipping the letter around and around. "If only they had given us a few blank pieces to reply on. We could sell them and buy ice cream."

They accepted, of course. As the team poured off the bus, they all stopped and stared at the huge school in awe. "We should totally have sold the paper," Bane muttered. "Bought ourselves a new barbecue pit."

Saeki strode over to shake hands with the Hyotei captain, a tall guy with spiky red hair. "So what's your line-up like today?" Saeki asked, voice friendly. There were at least three hundred people standing around the tennis courts, all in the exact same outfit, making it near to impossible to tell who was a regular and who wasn't.

"I'm playing singles two," the captain said. "Doubles two is Taki and Yoshio. Doubles one is Oshitari and Mukahi. Singles three is Shishido. Singles one is Ohtori. Yours?"

"Doubles two is Itsuki and I, doubles one is Kurobane and Amane, singles three is Kisarazu, singles two is Shudou, and singles one is Tanaka. Let's play a good match," Saeki said with a smile and a bow.

The matches went well, though Bane had to struggle not to beat his opponent over the head with his own racket; he didn't like the way Oshitari, smirking and glinting and looking disgustingly pleased, had looked Davide up and down before drawling a slow, "Let's have fun today," and taking his place behind his short redhead partner.

Of course, Davide, being Davide, had just nodded at Oshitari and replied, "I have lots of puns." Then, "Pfft," and the Hyotei pair goggled as Bane took his frustration out on Davide and clocked him over the head with his racket. The strings of it, at least. No sense killing his partner before the match even started.

"That hurt, Kurobane-nii-chan," Davide complained, rubbing his head and giving Bane a baleful look that made Bane want to hit him some more.

Oshitari glinted at Bane from across the net, and it took all of Bane's control not to serve the ball straight into that pair of glasses.

After the matches were over and handshakes had been exchanged, a boy who hadn't played in the matches walked up to Davide and said something that nobody else could hear. To everyone's surprise, Davide had frowned, picked up his racket again, and stalked over to the courts with the boy.

"Davide! What are you doing?" Saeki yelled. "The matches are _over_."

The first year didn't answer, eyes narrowed and stance completely different from his usual. His Hyotei opponent smirked, and served, and was quickly and brutally beaten.

Davide straightened. "Does anyone else have anything to say about what I choose to call my senpai?" he called out, completely ignoring the stunned looks on his teammates' faces as well as the shocked Hyotei member on the other side of the net.

"Well, this looks like fun," said someone from the stands, and soon there was a whole line of people coming forward. "We'll play you," the first boy who had spoken up challenged. "How many do you think you can beat?"

Davide shrugged. "How many of you are willing to be humiliated?"

One by one, the Hyotei members swaggered onto the courts, prepared to be the one to bring this new challenger down, and Davide wiped the court with each of them. After what had to be over fifty people, the Hyotei members were whispering among themselves while Rokkaku just continued watching incredulously. Bane knew he was gripping his racket a little too hard – his hand was numb – but he didn't really care. What the hell had the first guy said to get Davide so worked up? And… did it really have something to do with Bane?

After the ninetieth person, Davide looked like he was about to collapse, and Bane could feel his grip tape being twisted right off the handle of his racket. About ten new people had appeared to watch, over on the Hyotei side of the stands, and one of them was obviously someone rather important or at least thought he was.

"That's Atobe Keigo," Tanaka said suddenly. "That one who looks like he should be their captain."

Bane had heard that name before. Everyone in the Kantou region junior high tennis scene had. "What's he doing here? I thought only pre-regulars played practice matches," Ryou exclaimed.

"Spying," Saeki said darkly, then grinned. "Nah. Davide there probably caused enough commotion for the Hyotei regulars to come pay us lowly peasants a visit."

Bane was silent as Davide nearly lost to a player with short orange-brown hair and the strangest poses, and all of a sudden someone cried out, "That's one hundred people. That crazy kid just beat a hundred people."

"That's enough," intoned a new voice, and everyone except Davide, who was on his knees on the court, turned to stare at Sakaki Tarou, Hyotei's coach. "You've proven your point, Amane."

Bane dropped his racket and vaulted over the railing. Davide's chest was heaving, and Bane dropped to his knees as well and put a hand on his shoulder. "What the hell was that all about?" he hissed at his kouhai, who raised his head long enough to blink once at him before toppling into Bane's arms. "Fuck," said Bane with feeling, and hauled Davide's dead weight back to the coach's bench.

Saeki made sincere apologies to Sakaki and the Hyotei captain while Davide regained some semblance of consciousness. The captain grinned and told Saeki not to worry about it, while Sakaki eyed his team and said without emotion, "If they can all be beaten by one single person, they definitely don't deserve to be regulars."

It was without much ill will that Rokkaku left the Hyotei compound. On the bus, Bane turned to his half-awake doubles partner and repeated his question.

Davide's eyes were still as green even when heavy-lidded and slightly glassed-over, Bane noted uncomfortably. And they still made Bane feel like taking a few cold showers. "That guy," Davide started, and then coughed. "That guy said you were a perverted creep for… what… for tainting an innocent like me." He snorted lightly. "I had to get back at him somehow. Pfft. I'm not innocent." Then he fell asleep against the window.

Bane didn't really think the Hyotei guy was entirely wrong, especially considering the thoughts going though his head at the moment – Davide's hand had fallen onto Bane's thigh and the second year was wondering if he should move to another seat.

"Awwwwww," said Saeki from behind him, and Bane decided his current seat was just fine. "Ikkle Davide was defending Kurobane-nii-chan's good name." There was a round of good-natured laughter from the team as they gathered around for Bane to glare at. "But a hundred people in one shot," Saeki continued. "It's scary."

They joked and laughed all the way back, and Bane had to half-support, half-carry Davide down from the bus. "You're an idiot," he told the redhead, who just smiled at him from under hair that had come loose from its ponytail. Bane hadn't realised it had grown so long, and hadn't realised Davide had put it up during the games.

"You're the idiot," Davide said after a while. "Bane-san."

"Eh?"

A shrug. "Calling you Kurobane-nii-chan gets you into too much trouble."

If anything, it was Davide getting himself in trouble, but Bane didn't say it. He was too busy ignoring some strange inner voice crowing about how this new suffix didn't make him feel like he was having dirty thoughts about a little brother. Funny how this inner voice sounded like the twins when they were in one of their shared-brain moods. "Whatever you want," Bane replied instead.

"I want lots of things," Davide said hazily. "Like a good nap. And maybe an ice cream sundae." He brightened. "Wanna go for an ice cream sundae, Bane-san? Even though it's a Friday. Pfft."

Bane headbutted him lightly and grinned. "You're such an idiot," he said fondly, and his arm tightened a little around Davide's waist. "Yeah, let's go for ice cream."


	5. Chapter 5

"Bane-san," Davide said, hands on his hips and looking adorably dishevelled, "give me my hair wax back or suffer my wrath."

Bane scratched the back of his neck. "I like you with your hair down like this, though," he told his junior, happy to finally be able to make Davide twitch instead of the usual other way round. "Go a day without styling your hair and I'll buy you ice cream."

Davide was obviously trying very hard to be patient with his doubles partner. "No," he said simply. "Give it back."

"No," Bane echoed, and got to his feet. "I'll see you at the courts." As he strolled out of the clubroom, he could hear Davide taking apart the small cluttered space. He'd find the jar soon enough; Bane always put it in one of the many tarnished cups strewn across the cupboards and lockers in the room.

This whole hide and seek game had begun three weeks ago, when Bane had decided that Davide spending half an hour styling his hair was ridiculous; the kid looked fine without the hair products, and anyway, Bane rather liked the whole fresh-out-of-bed look. So he'd taken the family-size jar of wax out of Davide's bag, and stashed it away in the trophy from 1998. Davide had found it after an hour of mad searching through Bane's things, and the lockers, and even the stash of trowels that the team kept for clam-digging outings. After that, Bane had decided to repeat the stunt on slow days, much to Davide's dismay.

"Did you hide his hair things again, Kurobane-nii-chan?" Saeki asked from the benches, pointing his racket at Bane.

"Yep. Come on, rally against me for a bit. I need a stretch." He didn't mention that what he really needed was some decent physical exertion to distract himself from the idea of Davide fresh out of bed, or perhaps _in_ bed. These mental images were getting more frequent, and Bane wasn't sure if he was supposed to be alarmed or accepting.

A while later, a suitably-styled Davide emerged from the clubroom, but as Bane approached him, he ignored the taller boy and went to talk to Ryou.

"Why'd he do that?" Itsuki asked from behind a stunned Bane. Davide wasn't friendly like Bane, nor popular like Saeki, but he had never been anything but polite to everyone, and sometimes even sweet to Bane.

"I... think it's my fault," Bane mumbled. Obviously the thing with the hair wax had worn thin, and now Davide was angry. Bane dragged a hand down his face, and resolved to apologise to Davide after practice.

He didn't have to. As Ojii dismissed everyone, Davide stepped up to Bane and asked to speak to him in private. Saeki and Ryou, passing by, snickered at Bane, who agreed readily to his junior's request. They made their way to the large wooden playground-gym in the outer field, and Davide leaned against a large post and didn't look at Bane as he began speaking.

"I'm sorry for being so rude earlier," he said right off the bat, and Bane blinked; shouldn't Bane be the one apologising? "I get pretty touchy when it comes to my hair." He then glanced down at Bane, who had settled himself on a swing. "Wanna know why?"

"Uh, sure."

Davide grinned. Bane fidgeted, as he tended to do recently whenever the redhead smiled at him. "Once upon a time," he began, and made a flourish with his hands. "I was young, and innocent, and the cutest little chibi to ever walk the planet. Or at least Japan." Bane didn't doubt it - he'd met that chibi once, after all. 

"Anyway, I have a sister three years older than me. When I was eight, she decided it'd be funny to stick chewing gum in my hair. It was _melon-flavoured_ chewing gum," he emphasised. "And she spread it so thoroughly that the only way to get it out was to shave my head." Davide reached up and petted his hair down as if to reassure himself that his hair hadn't disappeared halfway through his recounting of events. "So I get really irrational about my hair sometimes. I don't really mind you hiding my wax, you know. It's just... today was a bad time." He shrugged, and plopped himself into the swing beside Bane's.

Bane looked at Davide scuff at the sand and grass with his feet for a while. "I'm sorry about that," he said at last. "Won't do it again." He reached out and took a lock of wavy red hair between his fingers. "But you really should leave it down now and then. You have really nice hair."

"Do I?" The smile was back, and Bane dropped his hand.

"Davide, do you have homework today?"

"Nothing I can't do tomorrow. Why?"

"Wanna go to the beach?"

The clubroom was deserted, as were the showers in the school gym. As Bane towelled his hair dry, he couldn't help but pause to watch Davide walk from one end of the bathroom to the other in search of his clothes, dripping wet and completely unconscious of his nakedness. Silently, Bane resigned himself to another sleepless night.

The beach was glowing by the time they reached it, the sun dipping into the distance and staining the waves gold. The pair strolled along the edge of the water, talking about nothing in particular and just enjoying each other's company. As they neared the stretch of shops and restaurants, a soft sound made them stop.

"Mew," the kitten repeated, looking up at them sadly with glowing green eyes.

Bane squatted down to examine it. It didn't seem very old, hardly old enough to be wandering around on its own, and it was skinnier than a cat that age should be. "Where's your mother?" Bane asked it. "Are you lost?"

"Are you talking to a cat?" Davide asked, but squatted down beside Bane. "Hello," he said to the animal. "I'm Davide."

"Mew," it replied, and stepped closer to Davide, who fell backwards in surprise. Bane chuckled and scooped the kitten up in one hand.

"I wish I could help you, but I have two dogs who would probably eat you," he told the cat, who made a funny meeping sound and nuzzled Bane's wrist.

Davide reached out and took the fluffy creature. "I could bring it home," he offered. "My family won't mind. I just need to get proper stuff for it. I know they sell Kit-Kats, but do they sell cat kits? ...pfft."

Bane would have smacked him, but he didn't want to shock the kitten. Instead, he settled for poking Davide's side and asking, "What are you gonna call it?"

Davide crossed his legs, not caring that he was sitting on damp sand, and lifted the kitten to eye level. Bane twitched from the tableau in front of him - first he had to watch naked wet Davide parade around in front of him, and now the redhead was determined to kill him with cute.

"I will call you... Muu-chan," Davide declared to the kitten, who mewed enthusiastically in response.

"Muu... chan," Bane repeated faintly. So much for killing him with cute; Davide was going to kill him with sheer WTF.

"Yep!" Davide beamed, turning Muu-chan in his hands to face Bane as well. "Say hello to Bane-san, Muu-chan." He gently bumped Bane's nose with the kitten's face and made a soft 'chu!' sound. "Come on, we have to get to a pet store before the shops all close." He scrambled to his feet, Muu-chan in one hand, and held the other out to help Bane up. Bane took the offered hand and tugged himself up.

Visits to the pet store and vet took place in the week that followed, and an attempt at bathing Muu-chan resulted in scratches up and down Bane and Davide's arms that earned them a lot of teasing the next day. The little kitten soon turned into a sleek white creature, with an odd black patch splashed over one eye. Bane thought it made Muu-chan look piratical. Davide just laughed and suggested getting a parrot to go with Captain Muu-chan. Or maybe an undead monkey, he added, and Bane kicked him.

The weather got colder, and trips to the beach got less frequent. Bane hated the cold, and took to wearing his jacket during practice even though everyone else was still in their sleeveless jerseys. Sometimes, Bane would come to class to find a thermos flask of hot chocolate on his desk. It was always accompanied by an unsigned slip of paper with a lame joke written on it.

"Bane-san," said Davide one day after practice as they took down the nets. "Are you free on Saturday?"

Bane shook out his end of the net and considered his woefully empty schedule. "Yeah, I suppose I am. Why?" Davide walked over to join their halves of the net together, then looked up at Bane.

"Would you go on a date with me?"


	6. Chapter 6

_"Bane-san," said Davide one day after practice as they took down the nets. "Are you free on Saturday?"_

Bane shook out his end of the net and considered his woefully empty schedule. "Yeah, I suppose I am. Why?" Davide walked over to join their halves of the net together, then looked up at Bane.

"Would you go on a date with me?"

Bane stared at his junior, who just looked back at him placidly, waiting for a reply. "I, uh," he stammered intelligently. "Uh, no?"

Davide smiled. "OK." He took Bane's half of the net. "It was hypothetical," he said, and walked off, folding the rest of the net on his own.

Bane blinked, and replayed the scene in his head. Davide had asked him for a date. He had said... no. And Davide was now making bad puns about tennis balls at Ryou, who had been tasked with collecting them. Should he have said yes? Bane mulled this over, and decided that it didn't really matter.

The weather cooled even further, and the leaves started turning colour and fluttering to the ground to join their already-fallen comrades. The team's list of chores around the courts grew to include raking the leaves, because there were enough trees to cover the courts if the leaves were not taken care of. Davide, as the baby of the regulars, was usually pinned to the ground and buried under a shower of previously-collected leaves. Bane often found himself observing how Davide blended in with the autumn colours, and more than often had to go stick his head under the taps to stop himself from thinking about Davide's tan lines.

As the trees slowly lost all their blazing crowns, Bane found himself with something else to deal with: a girl named Hiroko who had somehow become his girlfriend. She was playing Juliet opposite Saeki's Romeo in the annual school play, and Bane had sat in on a rehearsal once. Hiroko had sounded a bit hoarse, so Bane had bought her a drink, and now the whole school was of the opinion that they were dating, or that they at least had a certain interest for each other.

All that, Bane could have smiled and shrugged off. The point was that Hiroko seemed to think so, too.

"Kurobane-senpai!"

"Aa, Hiroko... hello."

Hiroko wasn't the pushy kind of girl who pressed themselves against you and demanded you treat them to a certain dessert or catch them a toy in that machine there, now, don't you love me? Instead, she was cheerful and kind of sweet, and Bane supposed his luck could have been a lot worse. At least his sudden girlfriend was someone he liked well enough.

"Amane-kun asked if I would pass this to you when I saw you during lunch," Hiroko continued, tugging an envelope out of her folder and handing it to Bane, who accepted it with thanks, and passed her a piece of shrimp from his own bento. It seemed like the right thing to do, like a sort of thank you token for constantly playing messenger between him and Davide, who was Hiroko's classmate.

He didn't expect the high-pitched squeals from behind him as his female classmates starting exclaiming that he was so sweet, and how they wished they had a boyfriend like Kurobane-kun, too.

"Aah, wha-- I don't..." But they wouldn't listen. Bane didn't quite understand the fuss; why did everyone make such a big deal about his being a nice guy? He glanced at Hiroko, who was staring at the shrimp on top of her own lunch and blushing.

Hiroko was a great girl, smart and funny and really quite pretty, and Bane got along with her very well, but he really didn't want to date _anyone_. Plus, her smile didn't make Bane shift in his seat, and she didn't take Bane's words and beat them over the figurative head with a big lame stick, nor did she... Bane paused in his thoughts and realised what the problem was.

Trying to convince his problem that there was a problem, however, was another problem altogether.

"Hello, Bane-san," said Davide mildly as Bane approached. "Where's Hiroko?"

"She's not attached to me, you know," Bane replied crossly. He'd just spent half his history lesson fending off teasing from various classmates.

Davide looked at him through a mess of red hair; he had obviously rushed to school that morning without his usual half hour of styling. "I thought she was, _Kurobane-senpai_," he murmured around his water bottle. Still, he didn't protest as Bane fell into step with him, even though he knew Bane lived across town from him.

Bane stuck his hands in his pockets. "That's the problem," he found himself saying. "She - and the rest of the school - seems to think I'm her boyfriend, but I don't like her in that way." He paused. "And I have no idea how to tell her that without hurting her."

Davide dragged a hand through his hair. "Well, ain't that a kick in the head, Bane-san," he said at length. "Still, it won't hurt to just give the whole thing a chance, right? You two do look pretty good together."

They walked on with only the rustling of trees in the breeze punctuating their silence. "How's Muu-chan?" Bane asked, knowing how mundane a question it was but asking it anyway. The cat was, in a sense, theirs, and Bane had been told to start off with something more open-ended than the weather. He had, after all, been coached by Saeki and Ryou in the Ways of Conducting A Proper Conversation Involving You and 'Someone Else', Open-Close Inverted Commas. Up to now, he still wasn't sure if their 'Someone Else' had been referring to Hiroko or Davide.

Davide brightened, and swung his bottle from its yellow plastic strap around his wrist. Bane had never asked why the bottle had a yellow strap even though the thing itself was purple. "Muu-chan's doing great," he enthused. "It tends to eat my homework, though."

"It?" Hearing Davide refer to the cat as an 'it' was rather surprising, considering how much he loved the animal. "Isn't Muu-chan male?"

Davide stopped in his tracks. "Cats can be male?"

"...what, you thought they were all female?"

"No." There was a lengthy pause. "I didn't know they came in male OR female."

Bane blinked. Then stared. Then began laughing. "Davide, you've had Muu-chan for more than four months, and you never thought to check him... or her... for his sex?"

Davide shifted from foot to foot, and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I honestly had no idea."

As they neared Davide's house, Bane decided to ignore Saeki and Ryou's so-called training, and said, "Davide, about that question you asked."

"I've asked you quite a lot of questions. They aren't always noble, though." Then, "Pfft."

"...I didn't even get that one."

"Noble quest-ion, Bane-san."

Bane grabbed Davide around the neck and gave him a noogie. The redhead's hair was messy anyway, so it was free for all. "That's really bad," he griped, but didn't let go. "I meant the question about the date."

"It's the twelfth."

Bane noogied him again. "I meant the one where you asked me on a date, you idiot."

Davide stopped struggling, and Bane let go in surprise. The second year reached up and patted his hair into place, not looking at Bane. "Please don't ask me about that while you're still with Hiroko, Bane-san. It's not fair to her." He sketched a quick bow. "I'll see you tomorrow at morning practice." Then he disappeared past his front gate.

Bane stood there and stared for a very long time before walking slowly home in total confusion.

-

A week later, Bane arrived late for afternoon practice, wrapped in his jacket and track pants. "Sorry I'm late," he muttered brusquely to Ojii and Saeki, who frowned a little but waved him off to do his warm-ups.

"Why the long face?" Itsuki asked and fell into step as Bane jogged past.

"Broke up with Hiroko," Bane replied shortly, and continued pounding along the courts as Itsuki fell back, surprised.

Word spread throughout the second years, regulars and non-regulars alike. Shudou, a stocky second year with cropped blond hair made the mistake of exclaiming, "Bane did _what_?!" and soon Saeki was surrounded by curious teammates asking what the matter was.

Davide was drifting along the edges of the group, and caught snatches of the conversation. Before he could grab Ryou to clarify, Bane had finished his warm-up laps and was heading towards the group, face stormy. Everyone dispersed.

After practice, Bane disappeared before Davide could talk to him.

The next day, Hiroko told Davide what had happened. "There aren't any hard feelings," she assured the redhead over lunch. "I guess I always knew he wasn't really interested. After all, he treats everyone as nicely without even meaning to." She smiled, and Davide nodded even as Hiroko's smile wobbled.

Then she added, "He seems to like you especially, Amane-kun. Maybe it's because you're his regular doubles partner, ne?"

Davide choked on his rice.

It took another two weeks before Bane let anyone talk to him about anything other than tennis, and the only reason he played doubles with Davide again was because Saeki beat him over the head with his racket and said that he would only start letting Davide play doubles with someone else when Bane had perfected their coordination.

One Friday evening, they left school together, bundled up and heads bowed against the building sea breeze.

Davide's shoes made squeaking sounds as they scuffed against the sand, and after a long stretch of silence he said, "It's not the end of the world, you know."

"Wha?"

"Hiroko," Davide told him. "She's doing perfectly fine, has been since last week. Stop beating yourself up over it. Those were her words, by the way."

"I'm not--"

Davide just looked at him. Bane shrugged and admitted that perhaps he was blaming himself a little too much.

"So... why did you decide to officially put a stop to it?" Davide asked curiously.

"Got tired of it."

"Bane-san..."

"Really."

"Bane-san..."

"You're really annoying."

"Tell me, then."

"Because I think I like you," Bane snapped.

There was a very long pause, in which Bane stared at the waves coming in and wondered how many clams were under the cold water today. Then he considered the clouds over the horizon, and the sun just above them, and was about to turn back to Davide to say something and try to erase what he had said, when a warm weight was against him and slipping around him in a hug.

Bane shut his mouth in surprise.

The hug was extremely awkward because Bane's arms were still in his pockets and pinned to his sides from Davide's embrace, and Davide's voice was muffled by Bane's shoulder due to their height difference, but Bane could hear every word that his junior murmured.

"I think I like you too, Bane-san."

Bane shifted, and managed to extract his arms to hug Davide back. "This is really weird," he said, and turned his face to the side a little. "Your hair smells nice."

Davide made a small sound of acknowledgement, and buried his face in Bane's shoulder. "Now what?" he asked, and Bane could feel his mouth move through his jacket and shirt.

They stood there for a long while, and Bane was strangely thankful that sane people didn't come to the beach in the evenings in this weather. Two teenage boys standing on the sand, wrapped around each other in a tight hug, wasn't quite family-friendly.

"The ice cream place closes at nine," Bane ventured.

Davide let his arms fall and stepped away, and Bane wondered why the air was suddenly so much colder. "Let's go for ice cream," Davide said brightly before setting off down the shore again. Bane followed him, and didn't say anything, just held on tight as Davide grabbed his hand and towed him to the ice cream shop.

-END-


End file.
